California 12-year-old bakes her way towards a $25,000 prize

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Bella Luu, a 12-year-old girl from San Jose, California, is one of 12 young bakers competing for $25,000 on Food Network's "Kids Baking Championship."

"Oh my gosh, these kids are absolutely prodigies...like, how do people do this," Luu reveals, "And that actually made me want to learn it more, too."

Luu has always baked with Betty Crocker cake mixes, but she upped her game during the coronavirus pandemic.

"I really just needed to find a passion and a hobby since all my sports are pretty much postponed," Luu share. "I was absolutely obsessed with it."

One day, when she was searching for recipes, a Kids Baking Championship link popped up.

"So I started looking into Kids Baking Championship and I actually found the application website," Luu recalls with a smile. "I told my parents and was like, I want to do this."

Luu is competing for a $25,000 grand prize and a feature in Food Network's magazine. And no matter how the competition ends, Luu already has her eye on another prize.

"I'm hoping that someday I can open something that requires food or maybe baking, I think it's definitely going to be a long term thing," Luu shares.